Wednesday, May 21, 2008

You want an activity for boys and girls that will thrill your five year-old as easily as your preteen? Oh I've got the answer for you! Behold, the mighty Bracelets of Power.

March yourself down to your local hardware store (Home Depot or Lowes for example) and buy several feet of 1/4 inch and 3/8 inch plastic tubing. It's probably over in the same aisle as the PVC pipe--it's not hard to find neither is it expensive. I bought two large coils of tubing for about $5.

Cut a nine-inch length of small tubing. Cut a one-inch segment of big tubing to use as a coupling (be careful not to get the tubing oily or greasy then it won't fit as tightly). Stick the large tube segment on the end of the longer, small tube segment then drop tiny beads or a little bit of glitter inside the bracelet through that larger opening.

Once you've got as many beads or as much glitter as you'd like use an eyedropper to fill the tube with water then stick the other small end into the coupler to make a circle and seal the whole thing up. Easy! I actually had some liquid glycerin leftover from another project and I put some of that in the water we used which made the water thicker and more like the liquid you'd find in a snow globe. Keeps the beads from falling as quickly but it's not really necessary.

I was ever so slightly worried about the bracelets getting pulled apart and dumping water everywhere so I put a tiny drop of super glue along the seam just for an extra precaution. Motherhood is always smoother with extra precautions isn't it?

I'm putting this in my summer camp creaft file. Every summer we go camping with all the siblings. I think there are now 29 kids between us all. We always make buddy bracelets to remind the kids who their safety buddy is, and this would be great for that.